IDF reveals entrance to Hamas tunnel, weapons cache found in Shifa Hospital complex.
Troops also locate a Hamas pickup truck with weapons in it, similar to those used in October 7 attacks; Gallant says military has moved on to 'next phase' of operation
By Emanuel Fabian and TOI Staff
16 November 2023
Troops also locate a Hamas pickup truck with weapons in it, similar to those used in October 7 attacks; Gallant says military has moved on to 'next phase' of operation
www.timesofisrael.com
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Tunnel Found Under Al Shifa Hospital Complex
Tunnel Found
Plus: Hospital shafts, poetry holes, Osama bin Laden, Randi Weingarten, and more...
Liz Wolfe | 11.17.2023
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Under the hospital: Select journalists were allowed into the Al Shifa Hospital complex yesterday by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), where they were shown what is purportedly evidence of Hamas operations at and underneath the hospital.
On hospital grounds, there was a concrete and stone shaft that reportedly goes deep underground, with stairs and electrical wires. The IDF believes this is evidence of what they've long known—that Hamas operates out of this hospital, using civilians as human shields, and that tunnels beneath it are critical to the terrorist group's plots. IDF troops have not descended into the tunnel, yet, because of fear of booby traps, but have investigated via drones to try to suss out what lies deep beneath the surface.
Col. Elad Tsury, the commander of Israel's Seventh Brigade, "acknowledged the pressure on Israel to show evidence of Hamas activity at the hospital," according to the New York Times, "but said it might be days before troops descended the shaft."
Tsury also said that "soldiers were methodically searching the complex and had discovered weapons, explosives and computers, as well as the body of an Israeli hostage in a nearby building." The body of another hostage was found earlier today on the hospital grounds.
US 'still convinced' Hamas used Al-Shifa as command center as Israeli raid continues
By Shannon K. Crawford and Molly Nagle ABC News
Friday, November 17, 2023
The White House remains convinced that Hamas used Al-Shifa Hospital, which has been raided by the Israel Defense Forces, as a command center.
abc7news.com
Behind the Blast Door: Hamas Terrorist Base Under a Hospital.
Israel Defense Forces.
Nov 22, 2023
IDF Spokesperson Daniel Hagari reveals a hidden Hamas terrorism base beneath Gaza's largest hospital—stark proof of Hamas' direct threat to innocent lives.
Israel Defense Forces @IDF:
A first look into Hamas’ underground city, underneath the Shifa Hospital complex:
Nov 22, 2023.
'Post' joins Israeli forces in Hamas's Gaza tunnel underworld.
This was the first time a reporter from the Jerusalem Post crossed into Gaza since the IDF withdrawal in 2005.
www.jpost.com
This was the first time a reporter from the Jerusalem Post crossed into Gaza since the IDF withdrawal in 2005.
By Yonah Jeremy Bob, November 22, 2023
The IDF on Wednesday brought The Jerusalem Post and selected other media outlets to view Hamas’s terror infrastructure at Al Shifa Hospital, especially its several-hundred-meter tunnel network, up close.
This was the first time that a reporter from the Post had crossed into Gaza since the IDF withdrawal in 2005, and it brought up close everything the IDF had found since November 15 that Hamas had tried desperately to hide at Shifa Hospital.
Laid out next to the Qatar facility within the Shifa complex was a vast amount not only of Hamas guns and grenades which the IDF found hidden throughout the hospital, but also rocket-propelled grenade launchers, large and small advanced drones for delivering explosives, and a variety of sophisticated intelligence platforms.
JPost enters the depths of Hamas's terror tunnels.
The vastness of the tunnel itself, with the Post viewing a variety of sophisticated rooms and the blast door which the IDF displayed earlier this week, was testimony to how important this location was to Hamas.
Among the rooms was a spacious bedroom with two large beds and a large modern air conditioning unit, a kitchenette, a bathroom, and other facilities, as well as extensive plumbing and electrical wiring to enable all of the infrastructure.
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The entrance to an underground terror tunnel at Al-Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip)
Two members of the IDF’s special Yahalom unit for uncovering tunnels and IDF Chief Spokesman Brig.-Gen. Daniel Hagari described the process of discovering the tunnel as a “huge riddle.”
They had intelligence about Hamas’s tunnel network at Shifa Hospital long before arriving at the site. However, not only is the hospital site immense, with an extensive number of spread-out buildings and courtyards, but also, they said, they had found signs that Hamas went out of its way to cover up and fill in the already well-concealed tunnels once they suspected that the IDF might take control of Shifa.
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IDF reveals comprehensive footage of Hamas's 55-meter-long tunnel under Al-Shifa Hopsital in Gaza).
This meant that the Yahalom unit had to survey and inspect a large amount of land and courtyards around and between the Shifa Hospital buildings.
An initial breakthrough came on November 17 when the IDF destroyed a small structure that looked suspicious and was able to find one of the shafts and entrances to the greater tunnel network under the rubble of that structure.
The IDF showed the Post where the structure had previously stood and the initial shaft of the tunnel which they found, including the unusual spiral staircase which the IDF had presented at a press conference.
However, only several days later were they able to locate the more important part of the tunnel network, including all of the specialized rooms, likely used by Hamas battalion commanders.
Part of the delay was due to the priority of searching room-to-room for Hamas terrorists, weapons, intelligence, and anything linked to hostages or murdered Israelis.
Another delay came when the IDF announced on November 19 that it had arrived at a blast door whose breach required great care if troops were not to lose the opportunity to follow the tunnel beyond the door.
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A blast door breached by the IDF in a tunnel under Shifa hospital in Gaza).
The Post was able to see the broken door and the hundreds of additional meters of the Hamas tunnel network beyond that point.
A taste of Hamas's Shifa secrets
The extensive weapons that IDF Col. Elad Tzuri presented were, he said, just a taste of what Hamas had hidden throughout the Shifa Hospital complex, considering that all the displayed weapons were only found in the last 48 hours.
This meant that all of the weapons, military equipment, and intelligence material that the IDF seized and publicized to the world in the early days of the Shifa-Hamas discoveries, including those hidden behind an MRI machine, were located in another area.
Tzuri said, “These items were found both in indoor and outdoor common areas – courtyards of the hospital as well as in patients’ rooms, and some in the vehicles of Hamas’s Nukbeh [elite] unit,” which were found on the hospital’s grounds.
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Hamas weaponry found in Al-Shifa Hospital by Israeli forces)
Further, Tzuri noted that the IDF had found RPGs, improvised explosive devices, grenades, guns, drones, and materials used by Hamas naval commandos.
The IDF colonel said that Hamas had been completely rooted out of the Shifa area which was once one of its top locations, but that there were still pockets of Hamas resistance in other parts of northern Gaza.
Tzuri admitted that until he was given the order to go into Shifa, he had never imagined he would set foot on such a key Hamas command center, but added that he felt it was an honor to have been given the mission “to allow future generations of our children to live securely.”
In addition, Tzuri emphasized how the initial Hamas tunnel shaft discovered was near the outside of the Shifa complex, whereas the other end of the tunnel with the extensive rooms, was right next to the Qatari facility deep within the complex.
Hagari pointed out to the Post a spot some 50 meters away where the body of hostage Noa Marciano was found concealed after Hamas killed her.
IDF Maj. “D.” of the special forces Maglan Unit described to the Post special orders and training that he and his unit were given for handling medical staff and patients as they took control of the complex.
Senior IDF officials have emphasized that they were deeply involved in ensuring that Maglan soldiers had extra restrictive rules of engagement when entering the complex, which Hagari said on Tuesday had contributed to not a single civilian being killed during the IDF’s operation to take control.
D. said, “On Tuesday we were given responsibility for taking control of Shifa, along with IDF Brigade 7 and other units... the first mission was to take control. He also said that they worked with the Yahalom Unit to uncover tunnels.
The second mission had a technological focus, to bring as much information as possible to our defense establishment” for additional efforts against Hamas and for locating hostages.”
“The third mission was a humanitarian one,” D. said, detailing the provision of medical care, food, and water to patients who have not been able to evacuate, adding that his forces regularly interact with Palestinian civilians in the hospital, appointing a liaison for each facility to ensure orderly responses to the civilians’ needs.
Further, D said, “We enable the IDF to make progress without harming any civilians,” as well as providing specific intelligence to defense officials “to bring the hostages home.”
Asked about fighting related to Shifa, D said that they had not encountered resistance within the hospital, but he revealed that the IDF utilized a mixture of his forces and tanks on site to kill the five Hamas terrorists who tried to prevent the initial IDF intervention as Israeli forces were first entering.
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The underground tunnel system below Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza).
The Post entered Shifa after crossing five or six checkpoints coming in from Kibbutz Be’eri near the border.
Initially, the journey was in jeeps across the no-man’s land fences between Israel and Gaza, which Hamas had bulldozed to carry out its October 7 massacre.
Next, there was a stage of crossing through the northern Gaza outskirts, with some “built-up” areas, though, since the war, all of these areas were destroyed, with mere shells of houses and buildings left in what has become a wasteland.
No Palestinians were to be seen anywhere in any of these areas, though the Post witnessed around 1,000 IDF troops split mostly into units of 10-50 in a variety of locations, along with tanks, D9s, and many other vehicles.
Eventually, the Post came to the famed Gaza beach area, which clearly once boasted fancy hotels, children’s attractions, and the full range of beach life.
All of that was shattered and steamrolled by the war.
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Ruins of the area near Al-Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip).
After some minutes driving along the Gaza beach, the Post entered the highly armored “Nimarim” which sources say have been able to take hits by five to eight Hamas anti-tank missiles and continue on their missions.
The armored vehicles have no regular windows for the approximately eight passengers, except one which can be opened on top and which the IDF forces opened once, they said, in order to better navigate a narrow area without crashing.
Mostly, the driver navigates with help from an additional soldier who has a highly sophisticated camera that shows the street ahead and behind.
The noise from the Nimarim was intense, but it felt more secure when entering the heart of Gaza City where Shifa is located.
On the way out of Gaza, the bleakness of what was left of Gaza City stood out starkly since some of the initial fear of what would greet us at Shifa had subsided and it was easier to look directly at the multi-year challenge of what rebuilding Gaza will look like... whenever the war is over and the future fate of Gaza is decided.
'Post' joins Israeli forces in Hamas's Gaza tunnel underworld
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Troops in Gaza find dozens of rockets under UNRWA boxes.
By Emanuel Fabian
December 2, 2023.
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Dozens of rockets found by Israeli troops inside a residential home in northern Gaza, December 2, 2023).
The Israel Defense Forces says troops operating in the northern Gaza Strip have located dozens of rockets hidden under boxes with UNRWA markings in a residential home, and other weaponry belonging to Hamas.
Troops of the 7007th Reserve Battalion were searching a home in a neighborhood when they found a room full of boxes bearing the logo of the UN agency that supports Palestinian refugees.
Underneath the boxes, dozens of rockets, mortars and other explosives were found, the IDF says.
Separately, troops of the 414th combat intelligence collection unit operating in a home in northern Gaza found grenades, weapon parts and other military equipment inside a child’s bedroom, the IDF says.
* * *
www.timesofisrael.com
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Documentation: IDF forces located and destroyed an operational shaft in a school in the northern Gaza Strip.
The fighters, in cooperation with special forces, worked to neutralize the underground infrastructure, secured and isolated the area north of the Jabalia camp.
Channel 7, 12.2.23.
תיעוד: כוחות צה"ל איתרו והשמידו פיר מבצעי בבית ספר בצפון רצועת עזה
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Troops in Gaza find dozens of rockets under UNRWA boxes.
By Emanuel Fabian, 2 December 2023.
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www.timesofisrael.com
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IDF says troops uncovered weapons cache hidden in child’s bedroom in Gaza City.
By Emanuel Fabian, 26 December 2023.
...In one of the homes, the troops found dozens of assault rifles, grenades, and RPGs in a children’s bedroom.
“These findings are another example of the attempt by the Hamas terror organization to hide weapons and terror activity under civilian cover,” the IDF says.
* * *
www.timesofisrael.com
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Exclusive: IDF troops find terrorist tunnel in child's bedroom.
i24NEWS receives exclusive footage from troops showing a Hamas tunnel found underneath a child's bedroom desk in Gaza.
Matthias Inbar, Defense Correspondent, i24NEWS, Jan 10, 2024.
www.i24news.tv
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Watch: Hamas terrorists firing at civilians at UNRWA compound near Rafah.
IDF conveyed the findings to UN officials
i24NEWS, May 14, 2024
www.i24news.tv
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In A Child's Bedroom:
IDF locates rocket and mortar cache in Rafah.
Israel National News.
Jun 3, 2024, 5:29 PM
In A Child's Bedroom: IDF locates rocket and mortar cache in Rafah
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Rafah operation: IDF finds tunnel shaft in child's bedroom | PHOTOS.
The Israeli army released pictures of weapons found during its counter-terror operation in Rafah.
i24NEWS, June 06, 2024
www.i24news.tv
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WATCH: IDF soldiers find weapons in baby crib in Rafah.
By Jerusalem Post Staff, June 7, 2024
Nahal Brigade soldiers discover weapons in a house in Rafah, Gaza Strip, June 7, 2024. (IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)
The soldiers fought in close-quarter battles with armed terrorists above and below ground.
The soldiers fought in close-quarter battles with armed terrorists above and below ground.
www.jpost.com
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IDF identifies terror launches from humanitarian shelters in Gaza Strip.
Jerusalem Post Staff, June 15, 2024.
Terror organizations in the Gaza Strip launched five projectiles from a Humanitarian Area in central Gaza toward the area of Kibbutz Kissufim on Friday, the IDF revealed on Saturday.
www.jpost.com
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Israel rejects UN explanation for 'Hamas’ use of human shields’ excluded from report.
Virginia Gamba, special representative to the U.N. secretary-general, told JNS that word count limits left no space to mention that the terror organization embeds deliberately among civilians.
Israel National News, Jun 19, 2024, 2:01 PM (GMT+3)
Virginia Gamba, special representative to the U.N. secretary-general, told JNS that word count limits left no space to mention that the terror organization embeds deliberately among civilians.
www.israelnationalnews.com
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IDF says it struck rocket launcher stationed inside Gazan ‘humanitarian zone.’
2 reservists killed fighting in Strip * Blinken stresses Lebanon de-escalation during meet with Hanegbi, Dermer * Top US diplomat said to suggest Israel poised to attack Hezbollah.
By TOI Staff.
21 June, 2024, 4:41 am
Canada said preparing to evacuate 45,000 citizens from Lebanon amid growing fears of war between Israel and Hezbollah * 2 reservists killed fighting in Gaza Strip
www.timesofisrael.com
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IDF destroys launch site placed in humanitarian zone, escalates operations in Rafah.
Jerusalem Post, June 21, 2024:
The IDF destroyed a launch site on Thursday that was placed inside a humanitarian zone in Khan Yunis by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and has continued its operations in Rafah, the IDF announced on Friday morning.
The launch site was placed inside a shelter located in the humanitarian zone. The Israeli Air Force then struck it from an aircraft. The IDF emphasized that before the strike, various measures were taken to mitigate harm to civilians.
“Terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip continue to place weapons and terrorist infrastructure amid the civilian population, endangering them and using them as a human shield,” the IDF said.
Additionally, the IDF said that troops have been continuing to operate in the area of Rafah and have been working to eliminate terrorists there in close-quarters combat, conducting “precise, intelligence-based” actions in the area.
Residents in the area said that Israelis appeared to be trying to complete their capture of Rafah, the city on the enclave’s southern edge that has been the focus of an Israeli assault since early May….
The Israeli Air Force struck the launch site that was placed inside a shelter located in the humanitarian zone. Additionally, IDF troops escalate operations in Rafah.
www.jpost.com
